Is driving a truck or car into pedestrians the new terrorist method for mass murder? New York terror attack the latest example

Cars, trucks and vans have been the weapon of choice in multiple terrorist attacks in recent times

By Patrick Knox and Mark Hodge

14th August 2018, 10:00 pm

Updated: 14th August 2018, 11:02 pm

THE attack in New York has provided the latest example of vehicles being used to plough into victims in the name of terror.

The incident, which is being treated as an act of terror, bears similarities to truck rampages in Stockholm, Nice and Berlin. Other devastating car attacks have taken place in Barcelona, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge.

The 52-year-old was shot by police and taken into custody, but later died.

In an apparent copycat attack, on August 14, a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of preparing an act of terror after the silver Ford Fiesta he was driving collided with cyclists and pedestrians before crashing into a barrier at 7.40am.

A man and a woman were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Ben Wallace, the security minister, said the suspect was a “British citizen who came from another country originally”.

He used a 19 tonne truck to mow through crowds watching Nice’s Bastille Day fireworks.

Bouhlel mounted the pavement, driving through innocent people at 40mph, before jumping out of the truck and opening fire. He was shot dead by police.

An attack in Berlin on December 19, 2016, and involved a 32-tonne truck which was driven intentionally through the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, mounting a pavement before crashing into a crowd of shoppers.

It tore through market stalls leaving a bloody trail in its wake before ending its 150ft rampage outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the city centre.

Tunisian attacker Anis Amri, who had been denied asylum in Germany, was later killed by police in Italy after an international manhunt.